If you dare to walk the streets of Ferguson, Missouri these days with a television camera you are guaranteed to encounter two things:

1) A quickly assembled crowd.

2) A scorched earth, absolute version of the truth propagated by the self-appointed leaders of the group.

The media jackpot that is Ferguson is well into it’s third month and has seen protests, riots, looting, vandalism, outrageous pontifications from political leaders, Al Sharpton (whose every stand is usually a media jackpot), barricades, disrupted events, attempted disruptions of traffic, commemoratives t-shirts, souvenirs, jewelry and now, the KKK. You can hardly throw a water bottle in any direction in the town without splashing a member of the media or someone in the process of being involved in the protests.

The origin of the protest is supposedly a reaction to the actions of Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson in handling a situation with an unarmed citizen, 18 year old Michael Brown. Just released radio exchanges between the officer and dispatch confirm that an alert went out describing two men involved in “a stealing in progress” at the Ferguson Market. Detailed descriptions of the two were sent out and Wilson then asks the officers searching for the thieves (units 25 and 22) if they need him.

At 12:02 p.m., Wilson says, “21. Put me on Canfield with two. And send me another car.” His call triggered at least two officers to head his way, including one who said he was close to Wilson.

Sources for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch said that “Wilson has told authorities that before the radio call he had stopped to tell Brown and his friend, Dorian Johnson, 22, to quit walking down the middle of the street. They kept walking, and he then realized that Brown matched the description of the suspect in the stealing call.”

Wilson then asked dispatch for backup and backed up his SUV next to Brown and Johnson. The rest is the subject off innumerable comments of speculation and accusation but these are the facts and Michael Brown is still dead.

A St. Louis Grand Jury has been listening to an unprecedented amount testimony, forensic reports and even Officer Wilson taking the stand for four hours without his lawyer present as required by procedure. The Grand Jury’s decision is imminent.

Leaders, proponents and lawmakers have taken to the media in a firestorm insinuating that the black community as a whole is the victim of the incident and is losing sight on what actually happened in Officer Wilson’s police car and how the life of Michael Brown ended. If the entire social system can be indicted then it might hold up a little better than the original assertion that Brown was simply trying to surrender and killed in cold blood. Forensic Magazine reported “There is significant blood evidence inside the car or gunshot residue inside the car, that tends to undergird the officer’s assertion that Brown came in the car and they were fighting in the car, there was a struggle for his gun inside the car,” explained Ron Hoshko, former assistant director of the FBI’s criminal division.

Officer Wilson and Michael Brown seem lost in the finger-pointing, hatred, anger and anarchy perpetuated by the media and the easy access of social media:

Race baiting is a major component of the strategy meeting at st Mark in $
#Ferguson right now. Called out, asked to leave

So what is the protest about with regard to Ferguson? This is not Montgomery, Alabama in the 1950’s s so why shut down whole towns or boycott businesses during the Black Friday shopping period following Thanksgiving?

The answer lies in the leaders and historical evidence that somebody profits from these protests and it usually is not the community.

The quintessential boycott strategist Jesse Jackson organized a boycott of Annheiser Busch to protest their minority hiring protests. Jackson’s son Yusef and his brother Jonathan were awarded Chicago’s largest Anheuser-Busch beer distributorship.

The aforementioned Al Sharpton attempted to boycott Burger King claiming they lacked minority owned franchises. Jackson intervened and Burger King increased their support of his non-for-profits to $500,000.

Sharpton once again stirred the media by demanding a boycott of rapper Lil Wayne and met with Mt. Dew about discontinuing their association with the artist after he put out a rap found demeaning to the late Emmitt Till and his family. Sharpton met with Lil Wayne, the boycott fizzled along with the press. Just weeks later Sharpton published his book “Rejected Stone” which was put out by, you guessed it, Lil Wayne, CEO of the publishing arm of Cash Money Records.

The point is, according to Sharpton and other “leaders” of black rights action groups, CEOs write checks to those who brandish the buying power of African-American consumers. In some cases, they hire them as consultants.

Now dozens of smaller groups in Ferguson with names that include “coalition”, “shoot”, “profit”, “empowerment” and “movement” gather together with the goal of exercising their right to demonstrate and boycott. It now appears to be a foregone conclusion that Officer Wilson was indeed assaulted by Michael Brown as the evidence clearly supports, and he maintains that he feared for his life. Stories leaked weeks ago indicate that the Grand Jury will not indict Officer Wilson for a crime he did not commit.

But plans for confrontations with police are not diminishing with the anticipated news but are now being accelerated and trained agitators are being brought in to teach tactics to first-time protestors.

We can only hope that cooler heads prevail when the news comes down but, unfortunately, the Rev. Al Sharpton announced that he WILL be attending the festivities after the decision is made public so we can expect more histrionics from the talented race baiter.

Thankfully, there are still small voices that see a bigger picture and all hope is with cooler heads when the decision from the grand jury comes down and people react. Unless, of course, it happens on a Friday or a major holiday. Then the uncontrollable rage, anguish and despair will occur on the next business day immediately following the announcement, according to Don’t Shoot Coalition Co-Chair Michael McPhearson.